This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Stories in my most recent on-line edition of Links Magazine got me thinking about tough tee shots and tough putting greens.

The story listed holes where PGA tour pros said they feared tee shots and greens.

On tee shots, you can imagine that one was the 17^th island green at the TPC Sawgrass course, the site of the Players Championship every year.

That shot is followed by a tough tee shot on hole #18, a par 4 that features water all along the left side.  To me, the uninitiated one, it looks a lot like the tough drive on #18 at Pebble Beach.

As for greens, the consensus among touring golf pros, including Tiger Woods, is that greens on Oakmont in Pennsylvania are the toughest they face all year long. 

Oakmont’s vast, Poa Annua greens average 7,000 square feet and were shaved to .09” for the 2016 U.S. Open.  They are frighteningly fast, but also incredibly pure, so they’re never labeled “unfair.”  The Poa is hardier than bent-grass and thus able to withstand the double-mowing, rolling, and foot traffic year-round.

But, of course, I am not a pro and, though I have watched tee shots on the 17^th and 18^th at Sawgrass for years, the 18^th at Pebble, and have seen a number of tournaments on the Oakmont course, I have never played any of the three. 

So, I changed the subject to tee shots and greens I fear most on the course where I play much of my golf, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club in Salem, Oregon.

The two most difficult tee shots for me are, probably in this order:

• Hole #10:  This is a long hole, a par 4 of about 410 yards, but it often seems to play longer.  Especially for old folks like me.  Not for pros who would use a driver or a 3-metal, then a wedge in.  I am lucky to have a hybrid in.

Plus, just to left on #10, directly adjacent to the fairway, there is out-of-bounds, which is easy to reach, if, as a right-handed player, who hit a hook or hard draw with your tee shot.  Lefties, of course, have the same risk with a fade or slice.

There is also a hill that bisects the fairway.  If you stay on top of the hill, you have about 200 yards to the green with a level lie.  If you get down the hill, the distance is more like 175 yards.  Just don’t stay halfway down, which gives you the toughest shot in golf – a long shot with a downhill lie.

This hole often seems more like a par 5, so a par 4 comes across as a great score.

• Hole #9:  Just before you reach the 10^th hole, you face the toughest par 3 on the course, hole #9.

From the tee I play, it measures about 170 yards.  It’s tough to hit and stay on the green, which, from an architectural perspective, is smaller than it looks.

If you get on the green, you face a tough putt.  From just off the green, you face a tough chip.

Plus, to the left of the green sits the clubhouse, which, with a substantial draw or hook for a rightie or a fade or slice for a leftie, is easy to reach.  And, what’s more, the Clubhouse is out-of-bounds.

I asked one of good friends about the tough tee, tough greens issue at Illahe and, with his normal trenchant analysis, he provided this:

The #3 tee at Illahe is tough because the shot requires clearing a hill that crosses the fairway.  If you don’t clear the hill, you face a severe angle and side-hill lie to try to get to the green, which, depending on where you land, could be 150-170 yards away.

For a straight tee ball on #3, there also are two fairway bunkers that can catch a lot of shots that may look good at first, but, if you reach either of the bunkers, the shot to the green is tough.

Then my friend commented on tee #8.  A drive needs to be the right of the fairway to allow the best shot into the green.  On the green – and I know this gets into the second purpose of this blog, tough greens at Illahe, but so what – it is easy to pull your shot a little to the right, which results in a long roll off a downhill slide below the green.  The chip back up the hill is tough, as is the putt you’ll face.

Back in the day, Illahe’s former pro, Ron Rawls, one of the best golfers in the Northwest, told me he had a special club for #9, the tough par 3.  From his tees at the tips where he played, the distance was about 215 yards.

Three is a great score here, both for Ron and for me.

Now, specifically for greens at Illahe, it is hard to pick out the toughest because all of them have their own distinctive, not to mention, tough character. 

To anyone I talk to who is playing Illahe for the first time, I always say this:  Work hard to stay below the hole because, when you go deep and the pin is short, you have almost no chance.  A three-putt is good from above any hole.

The slope from back to front occurs, in particular, on holes #1, #7, #8, #11 #18…well, there could be others; you get the picture.

Plus, on Illahe’s 18 holes, our excellent superintendent has the greens running at about 11 on the stimp-meter!

So, overall, tough drives and tough putts make Illahe Hills what it is for me – a tough track that never gets old no matter how often I play.